The Work Them Festive Season

Seasons Greetings, from Work Them HQ...


First of all, a big, unreserved thanks to anyone who's made it to any of our parties and shows this year, and a special thanks to anyone who came and made Mister Saturday Night feel very welcome in Manchester last month. A properly inspiring evening. Beyond MSN, we've had Fort Romeau, Auntie Flo and James Booth all guest for us this year, and it's been brilliant hosting all of them. There's more to come in 2014, and we'll be doing a few things a little differently too.

However, before then, there's two rapid fire parties that you're cordially invited to attend.

First of all, our gift to you, the Work Them Xmas Party. John Loveless takes his usual Kosmonaut residency and faces the DJ’s nightmare of ‘Mad Friday’ (20th December: forewarning) head on with a no-dickheads, no-requests policy, plus, free Eggnog and mince pies. We’ve also arranged for some special guest DJ friends to drop in like Bowie knocking on Crosby, armed with the universal gifts of disco, house, pop, boogie and some sharp sounding seasonal surprises. We'll be starting from 8PM, finishing up at 1, and it's completely free.

Click our acidically festive poster for all the details on Facebook. Credit to Natalie Dunning, as per.

Then, on New Year's Eve, we're proper proud to be part of Islington Mill's 'Future Party', which promises to answer questions such as 'what does the future hold', 'will the banking system collapse and capitalism die?' and 'Will the Jetson's finally arrive and eradicate cars for hovercraft aeroplanes?', through the interprative medium of a big, banging party. 

We'll be taking over Room 3 with musical soul brothers and Common regulars Stop Making Sense, upstairs with an endless sunset. Expect NYE party records you love, some fresh shit and as the night wears on, an unapologetic house and techno strobe lit pummelling. If you get bored of us, local heroes Faktion, Ping Pong Club, Tranarchy and more will be on hand, accompanied by some sincerely out there visuals and other future-haul paraphernalia. If you're off anywhere NYE, make it t'Mill.

Earlybird tickets are still available at the time of writing, at just £15. Based on previous years, this will sell out. Get on it.

If you get a moment to duck out of the pure cheer of the season, then the latest Work Them mix might be for you. '4 After Club Use Only', mixed live by John Loveless is an hour of some of the best understated and emotional records of 2013, designed with a late bus home in mind. Features Bibio, Not Waving, Daniel Avery, Julia Holter and more on a free download, slow moving tip.

Otherwise, we don't see you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Incoming Party Update - Mister Saturday Night!

This Friday at Soup Kitchen, it's time for Mister Saturday Night at Work Them. Straight out of Brooklyn, Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin (collectively known as 'This Mister'), have been hosting some of New York's finest parties, tailored perfectly and with some of the finest guests known to man. Playing an almost possibly broad range of dance music, uncovered classics and surprises, MSN hark back to an inclusive, golden age of clubbing whilst always looking forward. Just take a listen to this recent recording of the last ever 'Mister Sunday' party, outdoors at Gowanus Grove for a taste of what you might expect. And if we can conjure even a slice of the sheer joy and energy of this recording on Friday night, we're in for a good one...

You can also read an interview with The Mister right now over on Skiddle, if you want to get a better feel for the party. Alternatively, just come down and get moving. The doors open at 11PM, with Work Them's John Loveless on warm up duties and then The Mister getting settled into an extended set sometime after 12.

Tickets are online now at just £6 each at both Skiddle and Resident Advisor, depending on your inclination.

Tickets are also just £6 (plus minor booking fee) at both Piccadilly Records and Eastern Bloc in town, for those of you planning on perusing records, or sipping coffee or both. If you're visiting the former, we've left a handy reminder on the wall...

On the night, it will be £8 before 12 and £10 afterwards. Please get down early, for both musical and capacity purposes. See you on the floor!

Work Them with MISTER SATURDAY NIGHT + More

Hello, hope you're well, and welcome to the Autumn Work Them News Blog. Some stuff is going down, literally and on this page, so listen up, gather round, get involved, keep on scrollin'.

Work Them and Soup Kitchen are delighted to be able to team up to present a very special evening in the company of Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin, DJs and promoters of perhaps New York's finest party, Mister Saturday Night.

An all-encompassing, genre free party focused on music and community in the classic New York mould, Mister don't bring their style just anywhere, which is why it's a privilege to host them in the basement of Soup Kitchen. Their stateside parties, whether in the early hours at a Brooklyn loft or the summer sunshine of their weekly Mister Sunday block parties, have attracted a devoted, eclectic following of locals and dance pilgrims.

Meanwhile, the Mister Saturday Night label is just seven releases deep, but has impacted sound systems and record collections internationally, showcasing the likes of Dark Sky, Alex Burkat, and of course, Anthony Naples, whose 'Mad Disrespect' has been a deck rushing Work Them fixture throughout 2013.

Guests at Mister Saturday Night have included Caribou, Todd Terje, Greg Wilson, Optimo, Joy Orbison and Four Tet, but with a firm focus on the resident DJs. Justin and Eamon are simply two of the best around, as this recording from Mister Sunday back in June does more than enough to prove...

Mister Saturday Night will be performing an extended set until close with support from our own John Loveless early doors.

Tickets are £8 in advance and £10 on the door. We realise/feel vaguely uncomfortable about this being a little more than usual at Work Them, but this is something we really wanted to make (and nearly didn't) happen, not to mention, MSN will be playing for between three and four hours, so you'll really be able to lock in to what will no doubt be a fucking stellar selection of records that have crossed the Atlantic ocean. They're even bringing their own mixer, if not their own outdoor dance grove.

What's more, we do have some limited £6 only tickets available here on Skiddle, or if you like, also here on RA. These will not be around too long, then it's £8/10, so surrender to the possibility of discount whilst there's still time!

 MEANWHILE...

Once you're all done with 2 hours of MSN at their best, you can download and catch up with the John Loveless Work Them Autumn 2013 Mix, described (by John, obviously) as "deviating from the usual warm up with an hour of some frenetic, fucked up club material with the occasional poignant moment." Mixed live and drunk on a dying controller for express rawness. 

John will be representing Work Them at an upcoming event next month, the rather directly titled Love Boobs, Hate Cancer in aid of Breast Cancer Care, and featuring a line up of disco fiends and pals including Ste Spandex and Metrodome, who incidentally, go back to back on the latest, stonking Wet Play release. Details can be found here. You're bound to here some mad records for a top cause, and the sound system upstairs at Odder is surprisingly strong to boot.

So that' us. Direct any queries towards the Facebook event and otherwise, see you on the floor. 

Soup Kitchen and Night Fantasy

A quick, unusually waffle free bulletin from your friends at Work Them. After our supremely satisfying party with Huntleys & Palmers last month, we're back, kicking it midweek from next Thursday 26th September at 10:30PM, at our usual spot below Soup Kitchen. It's just £4 in advance or before Midnight, or £5 after and it'll be business as usual, A no bullshit discotheque drawing on discoveries both fresh and classic, expect forward thinking dancefloor noise on a bed of out there pop, funk and disco, plus plenty of surprises. No foam machines, no photographers, no awkward live PAs. Full Disclosure; No Disclosure. 

Before that, we're partnering with our pals at Melodic Records for another intimate party in the basement of Kosmonaut, now officially titled 'Night Fantasy', and as well as John Loveless, Andy and Alex of Melodic and Chris Egan of Tusk, our special guest with be James Booth. Back in the days when James was better known as Kiosque (July), he played live for us and since has released his fantastic debut LP for 100% Silk. He'll be digging into his ample wax collection for Night Fantasy, which you can revisit in his previous Work Them mix below.. It's free in and "the fun starts at 8." Credit to Natalie Dunning as usual for both amazing posters, we have a couple spare to give away at each night so just tap the door hound and ask nicely.

And as a reward for your willing absorption of details, here are some current recorded favourites you might well expect to hear at both...

See you on the floor!

Huntleys & Palmers present... Auntie Fl

Work Them are very pleased to be pairing up with our friends down the Mersey, Deep Hedonia, to a present an evening in the company of one of our favourite producers since our inception, Auntie Flo. A true original from the way of Glasgow by Goa, he'll be dropping by with one of the most out-there and eclectic record collections currently circulating clubs and festivals worldwide, as well as a selection of his own one-of-a-kind productions, in less than one week time as you read these very words... If you're reading them after 6/9 it's too late, and I'm sorry that you have to keep hearing about what an awesome party we had.

Taking cues from Afrobeat, Kwaito and outsider music, Auntie Flo's music respectfully and seamlessly mixes in elements of house, disco and psych to create proper vital rythyms. Exisiting as a project for around a decade, Auntie Flo has in the past few years seen appearances on Boiler Room both live and DJing, remixes by the likes of Pearson Sound, and fans found in the likes of Micheal Mayer, Dixon and fellow Glaswegians Optimo, all of whom are releasing his productions through their own  esteemed labels such as Kompakt and Innervisions.

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The first label to release his material, and currently prepping a new series of 12 inch edits by the man himself, London based Huntleys & Palmers are synonymous with Auntie Flo and label head Andrew J Thomson will also be spinning a series of finds that form the aesthetic of the label, who have also released fantastic records from Work Them favourites Alejandro Paz and SOPHIE.

Joining the pair will be Work Them's resident John Loveless, as well as a special live A/V set from Liverpool's Acrobat. Tickets are available now priced at just £5 in advance from both Skiddle and Resident Advisor, and more on the door on the night. For more details and to let us know you're coming, see Facebook.

You can still hear John Loveless' Work Them August Selection mix as a free download below. Featuring Thundercat, Beautiful Swimmers, Lone, In Flagranti and more...

We hope to see you on the floor.

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Work Them with Howes, plus August Selections - New Mixtape

This Saturday, Work Them and one of Manchester's finest record labels, Melodic, present a one-off free live show from Howes, a prodigal local talent whose recent, inaugural release on Melodic has been met with much acclaim. Playing live, he'll be joined by Work Them's own John Loveless, as well as Chris Egan of Tusk and the Melodic crew themselves. It's our first event in the recently refurbished basement at Kosmonaut, begins at 8PM, finishes at 1AM and comes at the cost of entirely nothing. Before you check out Howes, and our new mixtape, check out the poster below, courtesy of the brilliant Natalie Dunning.

Creating restrained, detailed music (especially for a self-confessed 'non-musician'), Howes debut EP still comes with in built groove and sonic textures bound to sound brilliant below the streets of the Northern Quarter. You can grab centrepiece track Leazes here, from XLR8R, or read more about the EP over at Boomkat, who describe it quite simply as, "Really good stuff." And those cats listen to a lot of records.

For more details, and to kindly let us know you plan on dropping by, you can find the Facebook page here. Otherwise, 8PM, Kosmonaut, Tariff Street, 10/8, 8PM. 

You can also hear a touch more of Howes in the new Work Them August Selections Mixtape, linked below. From the malleable hard drive of our own John Loveless, you can expect new alternative and electronic music, and a couple of unearthed discoveries from  Disco and Acid, to art rock, even a little Gospel, all furtively mixed for an hour and a bit of your audio pleasure.

The mix also features friends, associates and former Work Them guests Ste Spandex and James Booth (formerly Kiosque), the former of whom recently created a typical mind bender of a video for the latter, linked below. James' outstanding new LP, Reunion is out now on 100% Silk, from Junodownload (digital) or on limited edition cassette from Piccadilly Records. Act fast, dance well!

See you on the floor.

Work Them w/ Kiosque - THIS SATURDAY

Work Them returns this Saturday evening/Sunday morning, into the basement of a newly refurbished Soup Kitchen where the bar is longer, the sound is crisper and the urinals are still hidden behind a mysterious door.

Joining us will be mysterious local analogue merchant Kiosque, whose full length release lands soon on 100% Silk. You can find his exclusive Soundcloud mix right here below, featuring some his noted influences and his own material. It's a proper fun listen, and a free download.


Having seen his all gear set in action rehearsal, we can safely say this is going to be a bit of a trip, expertly flitting between irresistible jackin' and melancholy dub disco, with some blink and you'll miss them samples all along the way. You can take a gander at his gear below, via. of the moment snap app Vine (please feel free to follow our Vine if inclined.)

We'll be opening the doors at 11, so get down early. Not only might we fill up, but we've tonnes of brilliant records to play before Kiosque takes the stage after Midnight. After he's done, anything goes. With no current mix from ourselves (but an archive here, of course), find this month's Five Records You're Probably Likely To Hear Given The Circumstances below.

You can pick up an advance ticket from Skiddle for just £4. We'll keep your name on the door. We're nice like that, just make sure you're with us by 12. It's going to be a scorching Saturday. Nonetheless, deep necks at a minimum please. See you on the floor!

Facebook details.

Kiosque - From Hulme To Chicago

With less than two weeks to go, we're very excited about our next live special guest at Work Them, which is saying something given that he's yet to even release a single sound. So here's the scoop.

Earlier this year, yours truly attended the psychedelic Maria Minerva show at Kraak. It were a chilly night way back in late winter - arguments about Disclosure were more infrequent, friends and associates would still occasionally say 'YOLO' for comic effect, and the good club and gig loving folk of Manchester held strong and ploughed through a seemingly endless winter with a seemingly equally endless supply of drugs and alcohol. Oh well, YOLO.

After Minerva had finished one of her typically weird but exciting sets, I spied the DJ playing it strong, playing it all night long, and not immediately recognising him thought, "Hey, who's this jerk?!" Filled with righteous indignation towards this mystery selector, I marched over to the booth, furious, and said, "Hey man, cool set. Who's this by?"

"Oh this?", he responded. "This is one of mine." I told him, with a sincerity I hadn't expected to conjure, that it was really good, that it sounded like something that might come out on 100% Silk. "Oh cool", said the man known as Kiosque. "I've actually signed to 100% Silk." And on that dark winter night, tentative plans for a gig were born.

Work Them has somewhat gravitated to 100% Silk releases (and guests) since our conception, with tunes by the likes of Magic Touch and Ital becoming inadvertent floor fillers. Kiosque's music, or what we've heard of it, gravitates in a similar direction to their output thus far - warm, strange, both euphoric and melancholy and even faintly poppy. His upcoming live set on Saturday July 6th is going to be an all analogue affair to compliment our usual DJ sets, and the mysterious Hulme resident has put together an all vinyl taster mix featuring some of his favourite records as well as a selection of his own material. You can hear and download it below.

Further details can be found at our Facebook, and you can buy advance tickets at just £4 from Skiddle. See you on the floor?



And don't forget, our semi-sort of spin-off Still Going can be found in the basement of The Deaf Institute, each Sunday from 9PM-1AM, although last week's jackin' session with the one and only Ste Spandex extended beyond that. Not band for a Sunday buzz. Upcoming guests include John Doran of The Quietus, Trash-O-Rama, Dance Lady Dance, Ghosting Season and more... And it's always free.

Soup Kitchen w/ Kiosque + Still Going

We're pleased to announce that Work Them will be returning to our favourite basement, Manchester's Soup Kitchen, fresh from a recent refit, on Saturday 6th July. Beginning at 11PM, expect 4-5 hours of alternative and electronic music for the body and mind, from classic edits to throbbing house, chugging heart tugging disco as well as a few surprises. We'll also be joined on the night by our pal Kiosque, performing a special live hardware jam. This mysterious Mancunian will soon release an LP on 100% Silk, a mainstay in the Work Them record box, and will be previewing his raw but uplifting material in his home city for the first time. He's recorded a mix featuring a variety of overlooked classics as well as his own material to give Workers (yeah, we're using that now), a taste of what to expect. We'll be uploading that next week, so bear with us.

Credit as ever to Natalie Dunning for the poster.You can find all the details and let us know you're coming here. You can let us know you're not coming either, but that'll probably be self-evident. Although at £5 all night, what's your excuse? However if you are completely stripped of currency, we may have something else of interest up our sleeves....

As well as nurturing Work Them, we like to think of Still Going as a semi-spin off, with a few key differences. We're still in a basement, albeit, at the other end of town, in The Deaf Institute. But we're not on a Friday, or a Saturday. Still Going is a new idea and a new attempt to establish a Sunday session in the city, every week, 9PM-1AM. To sweeten the deal after what could have been a heavy weekend, you can expect a special guest every week, playing as they wish away from the hustle of a big night out, but still within the remit of our handily rhyming Last Chance To Dance mantra. Best of all, each night is completely free.

So as well as weekly sets from us, in the first few month's alone you'll get, amongst others, the likes of Wet Play's Ste Spandex jackin' some Sunday evening boogie, Quietus editor and Vice columnist John Doran letting loose whatever he likes on the PA, local heroes Melodic Records going head to head with disco expert Chris Egan of Tusk, Trash-O-Rama opting in for some weekending dance sleaze, or moody techno experts Ghosting Season digging deep into their digital collection, whilst Dance Lady Dance and Pasta Paul will be popping along with many an obscure pop gem.

Still Going is all about variety, and an idealistic focus on good music and nice people to wind down a weekend, all in a properly intimate and ornate setting. If you've never ventured down below The Deaf, have a look at this recent gallery, shot by Sebastian Matthes. We're also lucky enough to have had Paul Hemmingfield take care of our artwork, which is typically incredible and as the more cultured amongst you will recognise, loosely based on MC Esher's (our favourite MC after Hammer and Chunky), and his concept for a never ending staircase. 

The first Still Going is this Sunday 16th June, from 9PM-1AM, with residents John Loveless and Tenmen, and is entirely free entry, as always. We hope to see you down there. For a flavour of what you might hear, you can find John's recent Work Them Spring Mix, available for streaming and as as free download below, featuring music from Four Tet, Glowing Palms, Romare, Rhye and more.

For details of all upcoming guests at Still Going, do us a favour and find us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for bearing with us through this lengthy transmission, it'll all just be music soon enough.

Work Them March Top 10 - Part 2 plus East India Youth

Following the first 5 in our new occasional charts compiling records we can't get enough of at the moment, here's another 5 to take us to a logical top 10, courtesy of the other Work Them resident, Scott, AKA, 'That Beaman Sound', AKA, Ricky SB. You can find the first half right here. Gotta catch em all!

Work Them is back down in Soup Kitchen this Friday from 11PM featuring the wonderful Fort Romeau. All details and ticket links can be found here. It's going to be a great party, we're sure.

As well as our Friday party, John will be taking care of business on the decks at the debut Manchester show from East India Youth this Tuesday at Kraak, courtesy of our friends at Grey Lantern. So good that The Quietus set up a record label just for him, the show will also include support from Swimming Lessons and Leopard of Honour, as well as ourselves. All the details and tickets are here. Advance tickets just £3.

Digital Lyrical with Dr. Me

Work Them's first Digital Lyrical guests are esteemed local creative minds Dr. Me. With a foot in the worlds of both art and music, and then another two between them to presumably do whatever the fuck they like, Dr. Me are responsible for some of the most distinctive and unique posters and artwork in Manchester over the past few years. As well as work for the likes of Dutch Uncles and Holy Other, they have also designed  the poster (pictured below) for our upcoming party with Fort Romeau at Soup Kitchen on March 15th. We were as pleased as we'd anticipated, ie. very, and happy to interview them for the blog (pictured further below)

How long has Dr. Me existed in it’s current form?

On the first day of university we were paired together to do a 'get to know each other' kind of project due to our names being next to each other on the register, that was in 2008 maybe? We properly formed DR.ME when we returned from working together for illustrator Mike Perry in 2011 though.

What’s the current studio setup?

We sit across from each other, separated by a pair of red boxing gloves that hang between us and our good pal Steve Hockett (http://www.wonder-room.eu) who sits across the studio.

Talk to us about your recent exhibition at Piccadilly Place, curating local talent. Are you now Godfathers of the scene? – here’s your unique chance to make that arrogant assertion!

The exhibition at Piccadilly Place was with our bro SAVWO it was the culmination of 2 weeks of workshops with students from University of Salford, it was serious fun screen printing, drawing and generally making a mess and then welcoming over 300 guests in over the weekend to see the temporary gallery space. Godfathers of the scene? No, we're just getting started.

You've mainly done work with other artists and musicians thus far. Do you intend to work in a more commercial arena, or is is your focus more-so on an independent ethos?

We're happy to work with anyone that is brave enough to work with us as long as we keep a healthy balance between keeping the wolf from the door and doing things that excite us.

In regards to this, do you often debate art and commerce? Or is it just important to consider what’s sincere and interesting? Is this a really trad question?

There's nothing wrong with making money for what you do, people seem obsessed with drawing lines and saying "well if you work for XXXX then you're a sell out", the only point when you "sell out" is when you find yourself crossing your own line of comfort and starting to feel those pangs of guilt in your stomach. 

You’ve recently worked with both Holy Other, Dutch Uncles and D/R/U/G/S amongst others. What is the collaborative process when working with an artist, and what are the key factors in ensuring a sort of trust between the two of you?

Communication, the better you understand each other the and the more trust there is the better the end product is. If there is no trust and bad communication then you end up with something that neither party is proud of. 

Is there a different creative process involved in creating a poster and some album artwork? What do you principally draw upon?

Normally just the time frame but in principle the process is kind of similar, you are trying to create something representative that captures the essence of whatever it is that is being presented, whether that's something really simple to something highly complex. Due to both of these processes normally feeding back to the promotion of an artist we always find listening to the artist over and over again paints things like colours and imagery really well in your mind before you start working. 

You’re quite closely associated with the Manchester music scene of late, and you’ve a background in DJing and such. Straddling both art and music, how do you feel about the state of ‘alternative culture’ at the moment?

It's great, especially in Manchester so many great bands and artists coming through over the past five years inspiring people to stay in the city.

What do you listen to in the studio at the moment?

We've been working on the new Haxan Cloak record design so that's been on quite heavy rotation, other than that it totally varies, right now we're listening to Deerhunter but aside from that we got sent a bunch of records from Warp as we did some work for them so we've been trying to motor through them, Gonjasufi's record is a stand out.

You're currently exhibiting a lantern as part of Soup Kitchen's ongoing Lantern exhibition? Is it true that the bottom of yours is full of fun size bags of Maltesers?

Who told you?

What is the future for Dr. Me? 

Keep on scaring the life out of each other and never reach for the boxing gloves.

Thanks to Dr. Me. For further details, archives and comissions, check out their website.

Work Them March Top 10 - Part 1

Music. There's an absolute load of it nowadays, more than one man, even the men at Work (Them) could hope to consume. Fortunately, the pushier sorts like ourselves are happy to compile it into lists and present it to people on blogs. Is this a good thing? How do you source your music nowadays? Given the tyranny of choice, who are the real tastemakers left to front for the industry? And do those in the limited yay or naysayer roles crush the dreams of the creator and narrow the mind of the fan? Will they kill the HMV dog? And how? All things to consider whilst you work your way through Part 1 of Work Them's Top 10 records for March 2013, as carefully selected by John AKA, John Loveless AKA, Thor Jones, AKA, JT Chasez.

Helpfully, these are all records you can expect to hear down in the basement of Soup Kitchen at our next party with the amazing Fort Romeau on March 15th. All the details here. If you enjoy these, expect another five from the other half of Work Them this week, and find more music we like and details we consider to be of note at our Soundcloud and Twitter. We feel it's a way of us being in your life that works for both parties.

Work Them with Fort Romeau

Firstly, a big thanks to all of you who made it to our recent party with Tusk at Kraak. Hope you enjoyed the music, and you can expect another later in the year. But long before that, we've another party to announce...

On Friday March 15th, Work Them returns to Soup Kitchen for the first time in 2013, featuring one of our favourite new artists, Fort Romeau.

London's Fort Romeau has been making music since he was 14 years old, originally inspired by the experimental pop of Air and the atmospherics of Autechre. Having been absorsed in records whilst DJing throughout university in Brighton, he began working with La Roux, programming the drums and live shows for one of the most successful alternative pop acts of the last decade.

Experimenting and producing between sound checks and airport stopovers, his debut mini-LP for 100% Silk emerged when the band ceased touring, and the result is, in our opinion, one of the best records of 2012.

Writing music that attempts to capture "feeling more than a certain sound", Romeau's aesthetic is somewhere between the soul of early house, the ambience of Arthur Russell and the more jackin' end of modern bass music. 

Following the success of Kingdoms, Romeau has been signed to Matthew Dear's much loved electronic and experimental institution Ghostly, home to Gold Panda, School of Seven Bells, as well as Dear himself. On March 11th, SW9/Love (Dub) will be released on the label's Spectral Sound imprint, designed for one off dancefloor transmissions, and previously utilised by Seth Troxler and Benoit and Sergio. They're in good company - both sides are transcendent dancefloor fare.

He's also an absolutely brilliant, 100% wax DJ, and we're delighted to be bookending him with the usual mix of alternative and electronic music for the body and mind, from disco, weird pop, out-there house and techno, as well as a few unexpected edits to keep it fresh until the finish. 

Tickets are available in advance priced just £7. Sorry that it's a little pricier than usual for us, but we guarantee a proper party. They're available now from both Skiddle and WeGotTickets. More on the door! 

All further details can be found on the Facebook page here, as well as the opportunity to let us know you're coming. It's also Comic Relief night, so we can make calculations in terms of anticipated weight of beans needed and the volume of the bath - just kidding. The Lenny Henry DJ set was way out of our price zone.

Keep your eye on our Twitter feed as we've some material of note coming to the blog in advance of the show, including an interview with local art collective Dr. Me, who we can thank for this month's excellent poster, as well as the usual mixes, musings and so on. See you on the floor, but in the meantime, check out Fort Romeau's 30 minute Boiler Room mix from last year for an idea of what might go down.

On Request - Tears on the Dancefloor

Work Them are pleased, hell, bloody well excited to return this Saturday at Kraak, Stevenson Square in frosty Manchester for a one-off with our good pals and disco fiends Tusk. Entitled 'Hands Up For Heartbreak', we can absolutely affirm there will be no tears on the dancefloor (all weeping must remain in the toilet cubicles, their spiritual home), but plenty of leftfield alternative and electronic music, surprising edits, weirdo disco and let-go house magic. Check out the second edition of our Seasonal Affective Disco mix for a special, free downloadable taste, or grab all the details by selecting the revolutionary poster portal just below you...

Nonetheless, we thought we'd delve into the record collections of some of our favourite DJs and musical tastemakers in Manchester (and a few further afield), to find a few recommendations as to the finest dancefloor heart breakers  There's no shortage of great melancholy dance music, or at least music you can dance to, that establishes that tangible but somewhat indescribable link between agony and the ecstasy. However, these loveable shmucks are going to give it a shot at our cheeky request, God bless them. 

Stop Making Sense

Joakim - Lonely Hearts

"A totally melancholic, beautiful song, which makes me want to dance (on my own) powered only by existential loneliness. Plus the fact that it's a 3 minute pop hit is fully rad."

Stop Making Sense will be presenting a very special but typically eclectic selection of records tonight, as SMS Got Me Pregnant saunters into Common with romantic swagger. Expect "a whole spectrum of tunes from melt in your mouth romance to stomach churning smut and filth." We're also promised free mixtapes with a specially commissioned sensual cover - "guaranteed to get you laid or your money back!"

Dave Underachievers

Magnetic Fields -  I Thought You Were My Boyfriend

"I'm a big fan of this Magnetic Fields track which I've always thought could have been a big club hit but never was. It's not even on their most well-known album, which has 69 bloody love songs on it, many with heartbreak galore. I always think Stephin Merritt would make a cracking disco album if he chanced his arm at it, as a lot of their finest songs have an electro edge and his voice really suits this. I've played it out a few times, never a floor filler, but a few people always get really excited. Once somebody asked me what it was, which is a lovely thing, that really doesn't happen as much as you think. And I then inevitably acted really awkward trying to not sound excited or smug that someone cared."

As you may have heard, Underachievers is set to bow out gracefully within the next few months.  Fortunately, there are still a few more events from the city's last great proper indie disco to go before the end though. After that, all the illustrated dogs on years of flyers will be put to sleep. Dave expands on  the closure of Underachievers and the various merchandising opportunities it entails here.

Muscle Memory (AKA, Scott Brooks, AKA Scott Yeah, AKA @PopFacts) 

Thom Yorke - Atoms for Peace (Four Tet Remix)

"This may look like a box ticking exercise on my part to show how much a of a cliched modern dance music fan I am by name-checking Four Tet and Thom Yorke (which of course it is), but they started it by releasing the damn thing and pandering exactly to my tastes. All that aside it's genuinely one of my favourite songs.

One of the most impressive things that Four Tet does here is that, rather than remix the track per se, he completely replaces everything bar Yorke's habitually fragile yet soaring vocal. What remains is a shuffling live beat and a simple electric piano like that meander about for 4 and a half wonderfully heartbroken minutes before bursting into a 4/4 banger (of sorts). Majestic stuff."

Mr MM. is a regular resident at Now Wave's more electronic tipping lineups. You can find recordings of his storming live sets over on Soundcloud 

Ghosting Season

youandewan - 1988

"This track has a lovely hazy sounding chord sequence, it would fit perfectly over the end credits of some pretty heart-wrenching breakup scene. When we've DJ'd this one people have stopped dancing and help hands for the entirity."

Ghosting Season's debut album, The Very Last Of The Saints, is out now on Last Night On Earth. You can find their full discography here.

Dance Lady Dance (Lou)

Conan Mockasin - Forever Dolphin Love (Erol Alkan Extended Rework)

"We always play this song in a set. Personally, I love anything that has dark undertones but at the same time is uplifting. The words are a sort of nonsense and they don't instill any emotion but overall the edit is a perfect mixture of creepy and sad. While it actually gives me the shivers it also, at the same time, makes me want to dance my ass off."

Find where DLD are next a-spinnin-ana-twirlin' here on their Facebook.

Winter Son

Greenville Massive Box

"The bass is pretty pensive in this one, it reminds me of some 'doom-like' news that's about to land me, eg 'you've eaten the last Rolo, you twat'. Or 'Happy Valentine's Day, I've had enough of your vinyl, I'm moving out.' On the whole, an awesome track."

Winter Son makes dance music half way between Chicago house and The Cure. You can find out more, and download a stonking, Resident Advisor approved live set from Sankeys last year, here. 

Trash-O-Rama

1 from Trash-O-Rama DJ Polly Esther...

1 from Trash-O-Rama DJ Johnny Trash:

Trash-O-Rama are a little bit on the poorly side at the moment, so they just dropped us the tunes. But their record collection is as deep and odd as any, and their fun as fuck Clusterben parties are back in a new location soon, says Jonny... "The next installment of Trash-O-Ramas Clubsterben will be Friday 1st March at an 'undisclosed basement location' in downtown Mancunia. Details tba over the next week or so....."

And concluding in spectacular style with a spectacular choice it's...

John Doran (The Quietus)

Hercules & Love Affair - Blind

"In some ways, the question, ‘What is your favourite melancholy dance track?’ is almost too difficult to answer. Great dance music is always bleak on one level or another; even if only on a subliminal or notional level. (Perhaps ‘Oops Upside Your Head’ by the Gap Band is the exception to the rule… unless you hate the Gap Band that is.) Disco has always been engaged in a futile battle to create an infinite space for its listeners to exist within; and no matter how much we want a night to last forever, we always lose out to the space time continuum in the end. From Earth, Wind & Fire’s Boogie Wonderland to Joe Smooth’s Promised Land, it’s always been bluntly stated that we’re engaged in a utopian project by listening to disco, techno and house but the only place we’re actually transported to is an eventual tearful scene by the photocopier come Tuesday lunchtime. And the more futuristic the genre, the bigger let down we have to face. 

Who among us hasn’t been in some badly ventilated Ketamine shack in Wythenshawe, happily ‘dancing’ to ‘Pandemonic Embolism’ by Baader Meinhoff Fisting Circle on Raster Noton just to suddenly have the anti-epiphany: “I’m not actually going to see attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion am I?” (A realisation you will never have while dancing to the Parma Violets.) Any music that is born from a desire to make you forget misery is by its very nature born with both feet firmly planted in misery and smart dance music will acknowledge this in one way or another. 

Most of this Century’s finest (dancefloor friendly) songs are fully compliant from LCD Soundsystem’s Losing My Edge (ageing) to Of Montreal’s ‘The Past Is A Grotesque Animal’ (heartbreak) via Rihanna’s Umbrella (the vicissitudes of love) but for me it has to be ‘Blind’ by Hercules and Love Affair featuring Antony. I mean, I don’t even know what this song is about but it makes me well up like a motherfucker. I’m feeling like one lachrymal, lugubrious blubber box just thinking about it. I listen to this song and I feel like an al fresco sleeper who’s just been shown a picture of a puppy after his sixth can of Special Brew. But interestingly, it’s still dead good fun to dance to. It’s a funny business dancing, and no mistake. Someone should write a book about it."

John Doran is editor at The Quietus as well as writer of the finest slice of regular Vice, Menk. 

A big thanks to all our contributors. Work Them returns this Saturday 16th February to Kraak Gallery, 11PM. All the details are here. See you on the floor.